Confession time: I was one of those who thought the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins were finished after they fell behind 3-1 to the Humboldt Broncos.
The numbers certainly weren’t in their favour. For starters, they were down 3-1. Against a team that had a better record than them during the regular season. And in the first eight meetings against the Broncos between the regular season and playoffs, the Bruins had managed a paltry one win.
To top it off, the Broncos outscored the Bruins 20-12 in the first four games of the playoff series.
For the Bruins to win the series, they would have to win three straight times against a team that they had beaten just once. For the Broncos to win, they would have to win once against a team they had beaten seven times.
But this is why you play hockey, rather than calculate hockey.
That’s not to say I thought it would have been impossible for the Bruins to win, but I wouldn’t have put money on it.
As we all know, The Bruins stormed back with three straight wins, including a come-from-behind double overtime victory in Game 5. There was a total team effort victory in Game 6 in Humboldt, and another overtime victory in Game 7 – the first Game 7 the Black and Gold have hosted in Estevan in 14 years.
The game had the excitement and drama you’d expect from a Game 7. The Bruins jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Humboldt came back with two of their own in the second.
Estevan dominated in the third period and overtime, outshooting Humboldt 18-6 in that span, but each time Humboldt skated into the offensive zone, and directed a shot towards the net, the fans were nervous.
Shots on goal can be misleading, but the only thing that Humboldt generated in the final 25 minutes was a highlight reel for their goaltender Rayce Ramsay.
Ultimately the Bruins were rewarded for their efforts, and the better team in Game 7 advanced.
(As a personal bonus, I get to keep growing my playoff beard).Ìý
It likely won’t be a popular victory outside of Estevan. Humboldt was, understandably, the darling of the junior hockey community this season. There was a lot of media from outside of Estevan at Affinity Place for Games 5 and 7, and a lot of attention paid to the series.
It was great to see TSN showing highlights from Game 7 between Estevan and Humboldt from Affinity Place. It would have been even better to see TSN acknowledge who actually scored Estevan’s first two goals in the game.
But people saw highlights of a packed Affinity Place on TSN. They saw what a great rink we have.
We doubt that TSN and other national media outlets will be showing highlights of Estevan and Melfort in the next round.
Of course, the Bruin players really couldn’t care less if their victory over Humboldt detracted from national media attention. You play to win the game, not to put the opposition on TSN.
As for the Broncos themselves, they deserve a lot of credit for how far they have come in the last 12 months. Since the tragic bus crash, they’ve been through a lot. They had to rebuild a team from scratch.
Their president, who was such a big part of the organization after the bus crash, eventually resigned. They had to let their new head coach and general manager go at Christmas time.
Humboldt entered the season with two returning players. A third returned briefly, but eventually left the team.
What they have done is fantastic.
To be honest, I expected they would have a strong team, because the people would could handle the spotlight and the attention that would be paid to the team, and could deal with the initial uncertainty, would want to be there.
They came within a win of advancing to the semifinal round, in a league rife with parity this season. Who knows what would have happened if they would have made it past Estevan.
Instead, we get to find out what Estevan will do against Melfort. It’s a Melfort team that Estevan defeated four straight times in the regular season, and outscored 24-9 in those four meetings.
But we saw in the Humboldt series what the regular season record ultimately means. Just like the Bruins were saying they’re a completely different team from the one that Humboldt swept in the regular season, Melfort will say they’re a different team from the one that the Bruins dominated.
(Worth noting is the Bruins throttled Melfort 6-1 in January when the Bruins had four regulars out of the lineup).
Hopefully the crowd support will continue to be there for the Melfort series. A sold out crowd of 2,662 fans packed Affinity Place for Tuesday night’s game; it would be nice to see that many people present for Games 3 and 4 next week.
It would be even better to have hockey games as good as Games 5 and 7 between Estevan and Humboldt.
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